Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Aeronef WIP: the Irish Home Fleet

I've been getting more interested in Victorian sci-fi lately, to include Brigade Models' very cool Aeronef game. What's not to love about flying steamships battling it out high over Darkest Africa or Siam, flanked by flights of biplanes and lobbing winged torpedoes at each other?

I designed these fleets about two years ago. They're too expensive to sell through Shapeways, so I'll have to flog them around and see if any established manufacturer wants to produce them.

In naming these fleets, I tried to choose nations not already covered by Brigade's current line of minis.

This first is the Irish Home Fleet. I've been slowly redesigning these ships to include more detail, especially deck planking.

Unofficial fluff:

When the Irish rebelled against British rule in 1798, Pope Pius VI saw an opportunity to check the growth and power of the Anglican church. Channeling funds and Swiss mercenaries to the Irish, the Pope was able to assist the rebels in expelling the British from all but the northernmost tip of their island by 1803.

The Irish and British continue to spar with each other over such things as trade routes and fishing rights, with occasional small skirmishes between navies. Great Britain's development of a new line of aeroships towards the end of the 1850's spurred an Irish renaissance in shipbuilding, leading to a new generation of heavier, more potent ships taking to the Irish skies. Armed with German guns and belted round with American steel, the Irish Home Fleet has served as a respectable deterrent against any invasion of the island itself.